Sister committing benefit fraud

[ellie09]

I have a sister who has been with a guy now for a year. The relationship progressed quickly and he was moved in within weeks. She had a 3 year old from a previous relationship and became pregnant within 3 months and just gave birth.

He is living with them permanently and had a full time, stable job making around 30k a year.

My issue is that she is still claiming benefits as a single parent.

I work full time on 35k a year with a child on my own, having to pay full childcare and other things while my tax money is finding their living.

They don't live outrageously, but they have a much better standard of living than me. She's bragging that he is saving most of his wages in his savings. They live in a housing executive flat which is fully paid for with her benefit so he isn't paying any rent etc.

The two of them plead poverty, constantly asking me or my mum for a lend of money etc yet neither of them drive and he works from home.

I honestly wish they would get reported, and at times as a tax payer, feel like doing it myself.

AIBU?

I was in an emotionally and financially abusive relationship once and 'let' him move back in after he'd left and I'd initiated a solo claim. He came and went a few times over the next year and I continued to claim as solo the whole time. He never paid me anything towards rent and bills in that time and if I'd claimed as a couple I'd have been fucked. Yes I should have ended it properly and not 'let' him move back in but emotionally abusive relationships aren't that easy. Having read what she said about him saving his wages I wonder if she's bankrolling them both on her solo benefits while he witholds his wages. Is that possible?

I'd be more concerned that she's being financially abused by this cocklodger than by the "fraud" tbh.

I actually think he does spend some of his money. If he doesn’t it does explain lack of money as the benefits are not designed to include him! Bigger fool the sister!!

😂😂 unless you’re earning more than 60k per year, you’re not funding anything, you’re a taker. Whether you claim benefits or not, you pay less in tax than you get back in grants, benefits, healthcare, education, tax relief.

The money comes from corporation tax and higher rate earners and vat. Income tax payments from working and middle class earners have never covered the basics. this is basic economics and can be verified by hmrc ad they release the actual figure every year.

so theres absolutely no need to get knickers in q twist about "your" tax money ad you get most of it back in tax relief, nhs, education, and other services

Exactly. I have known SO many people who exploit and cheat the system. Not one of them has ever been ‘prosecuted’. I don’t know how you’d even go about it. How can you prove someone is lying about their depression or their bad back? My cousin is on disability for his ‘bad back’, yet somehow manages to go on fishing trips to France. Never been caught or investigated. My friend’s brother is on benefits for depression, yet still manages to lift weights at the gym and use fake tan (presumably on days when his depression has lifted a bit, bless him). Never been caught or investigated. I could list example after example of people who cheat the system. Often, they are a burden on the NHS as well. I can think of several people who are constantly at the doctors or the hospital for the most trivial things. None of them work, and they go as a sort of day out. It gives them something to talk about for the rest of the week.

I don’t know why people on the left are so quick to defend these people. They seem to think that those of us who point this out are rabid Thatcherites, or that we want to stick kids back up chimneys. I am all for a welfare state. I sincerely want to help good people who are struggling. I knew a girl who’d been sexually abused as a child, for example, and ended up a broken mess living on welfare. She hated her life and desperately wanted to work. Now I’m happy to see my taxes spent helping her. And I’m all for investing in education, adult literacy programs, counselling services in prisons, all that kind of thing. But there is no magic money tree. There is a limit to how much a government can spend. If you tax the rich, they’ll just leave the country, and they’ll take their money and businesses with them.

So he's a freeloading c* with his feet under the table to the extent he's saving his own money & she's going without, but she's the issue?
Ok.

This amazed me. Do paramilitaries still really "run council estates"?

If this is true (and I have no reason to disbelieve you utter than sheer incredulity) it's appalling.

It depends on the estate but it's certainly been my experience.

When I had an issue, I had to get it cleared by the paramilitaries before I could report it to the police.

(I don't live there anymore but do have friends who still do and it's still the same as far as I'm aware and news reports would indicate similar)

I wouldn’t report my own sister. Make sure she has contraception sorted. If she is struggling with two children she’ll be so much worse off with three.
Tbh she doesn’t sound very intelligent if she moved a new man into a house with a very young child. I’d help her to get back into work when her children are older. She needs to acquire the skills to be able to look after herself should /if/ when this cocklodger leaves her.

This gets trotted out all the time.

In their figures they only record as frauds those that have been reported/ uncovered and proved. The fact that 1.2% of the budget is successfully prosecuted frauds means that the actual percentage will be an order of magnitude higher. Look at this thread and how many people are condoning it! Then there will be many more who aren't actually breaking the law but playing the system e.g. deliberately working part time instead of full time so they can claim more, when they are perfectly capable of a full time job. So yes: a huge amount of money is being spent, which could be funding far more worthwhile things like the education and health budgets.

THIS

I'd stay out of it op

Her "partner" sounds dodgy as fuck man

He's getting all the benefits (pardon the pun) ie no rent and saving his money, while she risks prison and a massive fine

She is funding them, so is every other tax payer, not directly, but everyone who pays tax is indirectly paying for benefits, pensions, hospitals, police etc etc so stop with that crap which is usually spouted by people on benefits or on the fiddle to justify doing what they are doing. Report, the country’s on its knees paying out to people like this and the people who really need help are struggling to get the help they need!

When he dumps her he will have loads in the bank and she will be left struggling! Possibly with a debt and a police record!

Exactly this!

How could you even consider reporting your sister and it is her that will be prosecuted, not him, there is not a single consequence for him on this situation.

Advise her to add him to her claim, advise her to get rid of the free loader, but don't shop your own sister out of jealousy because you think she has more than you.

And as others have said, you aren't paying for her, you are probably not even covering the cost of yourself and your son, schools, healthcare etc.

Well aren't you a lovely sister!

I cut my sisters out of my life a year and a half ago, I've been told I was awful for doing so even though they mentally abused me for years, then I see posts like yours and it reiterates that some people don't deserve their families.

Leave her be. Put down the Daily Mail, benefits fraud is incredibly rare and not the epidemic that that rag would have you believe.
Direct your anger towards the people that deserve it.
The people paying your shit wages. The government that allow them to do so, the millionaires getting away with tax dodging.

She's just trying to live her life, she's hardly splashing the cash.
Focus on your own life and maybe work on your obvious jealousy.

My sibling considered benefit fraud. As far as I know they didn't go ahead with it because a solicitor we knew told them what would happen if they were caught. So in your situation I would tell my sister exactly what she was risking and what I thought of her, and encourage her to declare. Possibly with a real life tale of someone similar who was caught to illustrate the point.

I feel strongly against benefit fraud, it is stealing. I certainly wouldn't be lending her money.

This

Just go online and do an anonymous report.

No wonder the country is in the mess it is - and I'm not a Tory .it seems fairly common practice- I would have a word with her and just say if someone gets wind and doesn't like it she could find herself in big trouble- and it will be her not him that the trouble will stop with. She either has to recalculate and use his earnings and he has to provide , or he has to move out and find somewhere else to live and pay maintanance too

If she wasn’t paying the correct taxes there would be a lot more support for reporting her.

Tax evasion may be a bigger problem, but that doesn’t change the fact that someone fraudulently taking money they’re not entitled to isn’t also one. It’s theft, and being a thief is normally something that gets you called all sorts of lowlife scum on MN.

I can see why you're pissed off but you can't grass up your own sister.

To be fair...I feel sorry for her. He's basically living off her and boosting his own savings. Highly likely she'll end up a single mum again in the not too distant future

Unless you've seen her claim form you have no clue what basis she is claiming under.

With two kids on that income they'd be entitled to some top up benefits anyway.

You might be entitled too on your income depending on what your housing and childcare costs are. You should check.

Are a lot of people on mumsnet committing benefit fraud?

You get some really weird attitudes on here.

I don't totally get it because if they are together that short of a time and not married the chances are they haven't got the stability for her not to be getting benefits-he's not the children's dad. He could walk away with his savings at any time

The number of people who think this is ok is shocking! It's theft from everyone else and we are all paying more and getting worse services because of people like this.